Psalm 106: Why Must we Recall what God did in the Past?

Psalm 105 tells of how God treated Israel by recalling all the wonderful things God did in the past. Psalm 106 turns the table around to show how Israel treated God. They didn’t listen. They didn’t trust. They disobeyed.

This study will help you dig deeper into each of the stories the psalmist is recalling. I pray the Lord will break open His Word to shine His light into your heart. Let’s dig in…

Psalm 106

¹ Praise the Lord!

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good!
    His faithful love endures forever.
² Who can list the glorious miracles of the Lord?
    Who can ever praise him enough?
³ There is joy for those who deal justly with others
    and always do what is right.

Remember me, Lord, when you show favor to your people;
    come near and rescue me.
⁵ Let me share in the prosperity of your chosen ones.
    Let me rejoice in the joy of your people;
    let me praise you with those who are your heritage.

⁶ Like our ancestors, we have sinned.
    We have done wrong! We have acted wickedly!

⁴ Remember me, Lord, when you show favor to your people;
    come near and rescue me.
⁵ Let me share in the prosperity of your chosen ones.
    Let me rejoice in the joy of your people;
    let me praise you with those who are your heritage.

⁶ Like our ancestors, we have sinned.
    We have done wrong! We have acted wickedly!

Psalm 106: 1-6 NLT (emphasis mine)

Notice the psalmist twice asks, “Come near and rescue me.” Even back then, the people felt and knew in their hearts that they needed a Savior. Next, he calls out his ancestors for rebelling against God. They didn’t trust God.

The Exodus When God Saved the Israelites

⁷ Our ancestors in Egypt
    were not impressed by the Lord’s miraculous deeds.
They soon forgot his many acts of kindness to them.
    Instead, they rebelled against him at the Red Sea.
⁸ Even so, he saved them—
    to defend the honor of his name
    and to demonstrate his mighty power.
⁹ He commanded the Red Sea to dry up.
    He led Israel across the sea as if it were a desert.
¹⁰ So he rescued them from their enemies
    and redeemed them from their foes.
¹¹ Then the water returned and covered their enemies;
    not one of them survived.
¹² Then his people believed his promises.
    Then they sang his praise.

Psalm 106: 7-12 NLT

Images by Moody Publishers.

Their Faith in God was Short-Lived

¹³ Yet how quickly they forgot what he had done!
    They wouldn’t wait for his counsel!
¹⁴ In the wilderness their desires ran wild,
    testing God’s patience in that dry wasteland.
¹⁵ So he gave them what they asked for,
    but he sent a plague along with it.

¹⁶ The people in the camp were jealous of Moses
    and envious of Aaron, the Lord’s holy priest.
¹⁷ Because of this, the earth opened up;
    it swallowed Dathan
    and buried Abiram and the other rebels.
¹⁸ Fire fell upon their followers;
    a flame consumed the wicked.

Psalm 106:13-18 NLT

Images by Wong Chim Yuen, CC BY-NC-ND 4

Impatient Israelites

¹⁹ The people made a calf at Mount Sinai;
    they bowed before an image made of gold.
²⁰ They traded their glorious God
    for a statue of a grass-eating bull.
²¹ They forgot God, their savior,
    who had done such great things in Egypt—
²² such wonderful things in the land of Ham,
    such awesome deeds at the Red Sea.
²³ So he declared he would destroy them.
    But Moses, his chosen one, stepped between the Lord and the people.
    He begged him to turn from his anger and not destroy them.

Psalm 106:19-23

²⁴ The people refused to enter the pleasant land,
    for they wouldn’t believe his promise to care for them.
²⁵ Instead, they grumbled in their tents
    and refused to obey the Lord.
²⁶ Therefore, he solemnly swore
    that he would kill them in the wilderness,
²⁷ that he would scatter their descendants among the nations,
    exiling them to distant lands.

Psalm 106:24-27 NLT

Because the Israelites didn’t trust the Lord, they were punished and wandered the wilderness desert for 40 years. (Numbers)

They Disobeyed God and Worshiped Baal

²⁸ Then our ancestors joined in the worship of Baal at Peor;
    they even ate sacrifices offered to the dead!
²⁹ They angered the Lord with all these things,
    so a plague broke out among them.
³⁰ But Phinehas had the courage to intervene,
    and the plague was stopped.
³¹ So he has been regarded as a righteous man
    ever since that time.

Psalm 106: 28-31 NLT

³² At Meribah, too, they angered the Lord,
    causing Moses serious trouble.
³³ They made Moses angry,
    and he spoke foolishly.

Psalm 106: 32-33 NLT

They continued to disobey the Lord.

³⁴ Israel failed to destroy the nations in the land,
    as the Lord had commanded them.
³⁵ Instead, they mingled among the pagans
    and adopted their evil customs.
³⁶ They worshiped their idols,
    which led to their downfall.
³⁷ They even sacrificed their sons
    and their daughters to the demons.
³⁸ They shed innocent blood,
    the blood of their sons and daughters.
By sacrificing them to the idols of Canaan,
    they polluted the land with murder.
³⁹ They defiled themselves by their evil deeds,
    and their love of idols was adultery in the Lord’s sight.

⁴⁰ That is why the Lord’s anger burned against his people,
    and he abhorred his own special possession.
⁴¹ He handed them over to pagan nations,
    and they were ruled by those who hated them.
⁴² Their enemies crushed them
    and brought them under their cruel power.
⁴³ Again and again he rescued them,
    but they chose to rebel against him,
    and they were finally destroyed by their sin.
⁴⁴ Even so, he pitied them in their distress
    and listened to their cries.
⁴⁵ He remembered his covenant with them
    and relented because of his unfailing love.
⁴⁶ He even caused their captors
    to treat them with kindness.

⁴⁷ Save us, O Lord our God!
    Gather us back from among the nations,
so we can thank your holy name
    and rejoice and praise you.

⁴⁸ Praise the Lord, the God of Israel,
    who lives from everlasting to everlasting!
Let all the people say, “Amen!”

Praise the Lord!

Psalm 106:34-48 NLT

Food for Thought

Verse 34 reads, “Israel failed to destroy the nations in the land, as the Lord had commanded them.” That makes me stop and think how peaceful life in Israel would have been like, if the Israelites would have obeyed God and destroyed all the pagan nations in Canaan.

Pastor Sandy Adams elaborates…

Canaanite society was one of the most morally perverse and spiritually polluted cultures to ever appear on planet earth. God raised up Israel as an instrument of His judgment. His desire was to wipe their perversion off the face of the planet and from the memory of men.

But Israel failed to take the radical action God commanded. Rather than kill the inhabitants of the land – they “mingled” and made alliances. And tragically, the Israelis were corrupted by the evil they tolerated. Which is how evil often works… what you tolerate in others usually comes home to roost in you. It’s reverse evangelism.

Pastor Sandy Adams

Returning to Israel

At the Tower of Babel, God scattered the people. Later, He led the people to the Promised Land — Israel. Because the Israelites continued to disobey Him, He sent them into exile in Babylon for 70 years. Once Jesus, the Messiah came and they didn’t believe Him, the temple was destroyed and the Jews were scattered again.

In 1948, a new Jewish state/nation was born. Since then, many Jews have made Aliyah — return to the Promised Land. This was prophesied by Ezekiel.

Salvation

The psalmist cries out, “Save us, O Lord our God!” It’s sad that they did not recognize Jesus — Yeshua Hamashiach — the Jewish Messiah when He came the first time.

All Hope is NOT LOST!

For Such a Time as This…

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Jesus said…

Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends.

Revelation 3:20 NLt

Trust God!

Honey in the Rock

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Soli Deo Gloria — To God Alone Be The Glory!